meat Posted April 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 Yeah, that did show up in all the previous logs I've posted. I'm not entirely sure what that means though. The end result is still a failed backup, it just seems to be failing at different points in the process. Also, when I go to check the activity log I feel like I'm missing the "end" of it if you know what I mean. as in, the log just stops with no time completed or anything to that effect, even though it's clearly stopped and no longer performing the backup. Perhaps there is something I'm missing here and not understanding. Thanks for the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted April 27, 2009 Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 Go into the preferences and increase the total number of logs lines to display. Check the OS X console for a Retrospect crash. That may explain why the log is missing data. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMRMacBackup Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 I am having serious speed issues over fibre as well. My latest backups, with verification turned off and MD5 digests left on, are around 1.8 G/m. I have been told that this is an acceptable speed, but I was getting 3.2 G/m with the exact same hardware when using Retro 6. I know the hardware can perform at a much faster level than this, in 14 hours I have filled less than 2 LTO4 tapes. I'm not sure if it would help, but I have taken a sample of the processes that the Retro Engine is performing via Activity Monitor and attached it to this reply along with a full system profile. If there is any other information that will help troubleshoot this issue do not hesitate to ask. System specifics: • Intel Xserve (10.5.6 Server, 2 x 2Ghz, Apple Raid card, 3 x 750GB Raid 5, 10GB RAM) • EMC Retrospect Single Server Unlimited 8.0.736 • Apple 4Ghz 4 Port FC Card (driver 2.02) • Promise 610f 9TB (Raid 5, 4GB FC controller, connected to Apple FC card) • HP StorageWorks 4048 LTO4 dual drive w/4GB FC controller (connected to Apple FC card) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 What types of files do you back up? text, image files, video files? Are they pre-compressed? Are they large (what is a typical file size). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMRMacBackup Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Our server handles everything from 1x1 pixel GIFs to multi-gigabyte Photoshop and video files. As for a ratio of these I would say we have around 4% over 1GB, the majority of them are only a few MB in size. None of the files are pre-compressed, they are a composite of Photoshop, Illustrator, JPEGs, TIFF, some MSoft Office docs, spreadsheets, presentations, Final Cut, After Effects, etc. File count is 478,800 files / 4,422.5 GB. This server was never involved with the Retro 8 Beta, first version of Retro 8 to be installed was 8.0.608. Our backups complete if given enough time, but errors result because data is changing on the active source. I have radically scaled back our backup process and have limited it to 6 rotating, weekly groups. Previously I was able to make 2 backups over the weekend, I would send one offsite and maintain another set as a local backup during the week. Now I am restricted to one backup over 4 days, with hundreds of errors because the data has changed by the time Retro has gotten to it. [bTW, my apologies to 'meat' for hijacking this conversation, hopefully we have a similar problem and it can be resolved quickly] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 By "pre-compressed" Robin means files such as .jpg and .mp3, which are, by their nature, compressed files. But it doesn't sound as if that's the issue here. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMRMacBackup Posted June 11, 2009 Report Share Posted June 11, 2009 There are a few compressed files (certainly a large selection of the video and audio files) but the majority of the files are regular formats per their respective application. I have not seen the list of errors that 'meat' has posted in this thread, my log contains thousands of 'can't read, -1101' because the file has been moved or deleted since the initial scan at the beginning of the backup. With the exception of the speed this program has performed exceptionally well for me, and I really would like to continue using it. Based upon the media summaries (big thanks for this feature BTW) my backup currently in progress shows... 1-Weekend - B: 6/9/2009 7:05 PM (9hrs 23min) 2-Weekend - B: 6/10/2009 4:28 AM (8hrs 31min) 3-Weekend - B: 6/10/2009 12:59 PM (8hrs 34min) 4-Weekend - B: 6/10/2009 9:33 PM (9hrs 08min) 5-Weekend - B: 6/11/2009 6:41 AM (in progress...) This is for 478,800 files (4,422.5 GB) over a 4GB fibre connection to an LTO4 tape library. Memory usage is considerably less than Retro 6 and I no longer have concerns that the PowerPC processes will hang the system, but the performance issue needs to be addressed before I can give this version a 'thumbs up'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMRMacBackup Posted June 11, 2009 Report Share Posted June 11, 2009 One question I have for the collective, could the Retro 6 'RetroRun' PowerPC process still running on my Intel system be interfering with the Retro 8 'RetroEngine' process and creating this speed problem? If so, what would be the best way to remove it? I still have archival content on LTO1 tapes and use Retro 6 several times a month to recover old files. This may seem like a neophyte question, but for lack of full documentation I have not seen or read anything in the forums about co-existing Retro 6 and 8 sub-processes running concurrently, other than the applications can co-exist if you need access to the old archival content. Can the Retro 6 process be removed and still allow the application to work properly, without the scheduling functions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted June 11, 2009 Report Share Posted June 11, 2009 could the Retro 6 'RetroRun' PowerPC process still running on my Intel system be interfering with the Retro 8 'RetroEngine' process and creating this speed problem? No. what would be the best way to remove (RetroRun)? I still have archival content on LTO1 tapes and use Retro 6 several times a month to recover old files. Since you don't need to Auto-Launch Retrospect 6, disable: Special->Preferences->Notifications->Automatically launch Retrospect After that RetroRun will only run when the Retrospect 6.1 application runs, not all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMRMacBackup Posted July 13, 2009 Report Share Posted July 13, 2009 Interesting occurrence with the 'RetroRun process', I turned off the "Automatically launch Retrospect" option and it still remains running after opening and closing Retro 6 application. Since this is the only PowerPC process running on the server it stands out immediately in the Activity Monitor. I just hope there will be an update in the future to read older tapes archived by Retro 6 (when Retro 8 is stable and the engineers are bored, LOL) so I can finally say goodbye to the old work horse. Side topic: has there been a thread started on the viability of Retro 6 tapes being accessible when Snow Leopard is released in the fall? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted July 14, 2009 Report Share Posted July 14, 2009 I turned off the "Automatically launch Retrospect" option and it still remains running after opening and closing Retro 6 application It shouldn't. Force quit the process from Activity Monitor, then launch/quit Retrospect 6.1 again. retrorun should live and die along with the application; does it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMRMacBackup Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 No, RetroRun continues to appear in Activity Monitor once the Retro 6 application is opened and quit. I checked my Preview window and no scripts are scheduled to run. Asking the process to quit 'nicely' does not work, the process must be Force Quit. Fortunately 8.1.148 has improved the fibre throughput, my last full backup was up to 2507.2 MB/minute, much improved from the 1730.0 MB/minute previously experienced. Once Retro 8 achieves the 3200 MB/minute I was getting with Retro 6 I'll be a happy man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 RetroRun continues to appear in Activity Monitor once the Retro 6 application is opened and quit OK, you can choose to follow the steps I suggested and perhaps get a different end result, or follow some different steps and get the results you did. Your call. I checked my Preview window and no scripts are scheduled to run. Pending scripts have no relationship to the preference for retrorun to stay alive all the time. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMRMacBackup Posted November 30, 2009 Report Share Posted November 30, 2009 A final note to this discussion, renaming the original Retrospect application to "Retrospect 6" has stopped the occasional appearance of the PowerPC RetroRun service in the Activity Viewer. My only interpretation of this is the system was confused every now and then and opened up the wrong application. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted December 1, 2009 Report Share Posted December 1, 2009 Might be that there's some stuff floating around that now can't find the RetroRun program to launch. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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